Public Domain
Fighting Blood
1911 · Biograph Company · Dir. D.W. Griffith
After the Civil War, an ex-soldier and his family settle in the Dakota Territory. The son quarrels with the father and leaves home. Riding in the hills, he spots a band of Indians attacking a neighboring homestead, and he races back to warn his family as the Indians chase him.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Fighting Blood (1911) is a short film directed by D. W. Griffith for the Biograph Company. At the time of its release, the maximum duration of copyright protection in the United States was 56 years (an initial 28-year term followed by a 28-year renewal period).
Under current US copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of whether they were originally registered or renewed. Since this film was published and copyrighted in 1911, it has definitively expired into the public domain. It is currently held and preserved in the public domain collections of various institutions, including the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) - Motion Pictures, 1894-1912
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Internet Archive - Film Superlist (Hurst/Baer)
- D.W. Griffith: An American Life (Schickel, 1984)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.